You're the One That I Want

This is once the girls have left Tibbys

After everyone had run out of the restaurant, Carrie Martins decided to go visit a friend of hers. Over the last three years, since she had left the city to go live with her aunt, she had kept in touch with her best friend, David Jacobs. They had been friends since they were younger, and she still wanted to keep in touch even after she had to move.

She had left New York after her parents had died. They had died in a train accident, and she was the only one left. After she found out they were dead, she asked her aunt if she could live with her. When she arrived at her aunt's, she found out that her aunt was a music conductor of a beginning youth orchestra group. Carrie had always loved music, and she asked her aunt if she could be in the group.

Reluctantly, her aunt let her, and Carrie tried the drums. From the first time she picked it up, she loved it. She would spend hours rehearsing with her mallets until she had everything perfect. After she had been in the group a few months, her aunt made her first chair, and no one argued with her. They all knew that she was a superior mallet player, and it was only smart to put her there.

******

Carrie started walking towards David's building. They had lived in the same building, all their lives, and she figured that he still lived there. Arriving at the building, she found his apartment, and knocked on the door. When no one answered, she walked down to the front desk, and asked the burly clerk, behind the desk, "Do you know if David Jacobs is around?"

"He hasn't lived here for a few months. After his parents died, his brother was sent to go live with their sister, since David was trying to finish school. He moved out because of the memories or something."

"Do you know where he moved to?" She asked hopefully.

He shook his head and stated, "No, I don't. When he left, he didn't saw anything about where he was going. Wish he had, though. He was the nicest young man I've ever known. His friends were nice to. They were always coming here to visit, and talked to me once in a while."

"Where are his friends? Maybe they know," she wondered.

"They're the newsies. They're all over the city. They might know where he is. You can try."

"Thanks," she said with a smile. "Thanks for all your help."

"You're welcome."

She ran out the door and started looking for the newsies. If she wanted to find David, she had to find a newsie. 'Hopefully they're nice. Mom always told me to be careful when I was around them.'

"FIRE!!"

She stood there as everyone rushed passed her to go see the fire. Following the crowd, she saw an apartment building with fire blazing out the windows. People were stumbling out of the building, carrying bags and blankets. Pushing her way through to the front of the crowd, she heard someone shout, "There's someone still up there."

Looking up, she saw someone standing along the edge, trying to find some way off. Running to the side, she saw there was a fire escape, but it was falling apart. It wasn't safe to climb down on. Searching along the ground, she found a long piece of rope. Picking it up, she yanked on it to see if it was sturdy. It was.

Winding it up, she threw it over her shoulder and carefully climbed up the dilapidated fire escape. A few times, she had to stop because it felt like the stairs were going to give out on her and send her plummeting to the ground. Finally, she reached the roof, and it was hot up there from the fire.

Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she took the rope off her shoulder and ran towards where she had seen the figure. When she reached him, she saw that he had fainted, probably from all the smoke that was now coming out of the building. Gently, she hit him across the face, yelling, "Come on! Wake up!"

He mumbled something and woke up. Opening his eyes, he saw a pretty girl with long brown hair and hazel eyes. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw that he was awake, but that relief was short lived because it was getting hotter up there by the minute. Grabbing his hand, she dragged him to his feet, and raced him to the fire escape. When they reached the fire escape, she gasped in dismay to see that it was no longer along the building, but in a pile on the ground.

"Now what?" she grumbled. Remembering the rope, she grabbed it from the ground and tied it to the left over pipes from the fire escape. Throwing the rope over the edge, she saw that it almost reach the ground. "Come on, you go first."

He nodded, grabbing the rope, and throwing his leg over the edge. When he was down a ways, she started to follow him down the rope. Halfway down, Carrie looked up the rope, and saw that it had caught fire. "Oh, no," she shouted. Looking down at the guy, she shouted, "Climb down faster!"

He looked up, saw the fire, and started going faster. It seemed like he couldn't go fast enough because the fire was getting closer. By the time they reached the ground, the fire was almost on top of them. Dropping to the ground, they ran from the rope as the fire finished it off.

When they were finally on the ground, they sat down as they tried to catch their breath. Looking at the guy, she noticed that he had scraggly brown hair just like David. She always loved his hair because she always messed it up when she was playing. At that time, he looked up, and she saw his eyes. His eyes were a warm blue just like David's. This was starting to scare her because he reminded her so much of David, and she still needed to find out where he was.

When David looked up, he saw that the girl was looking at him. He looked at her and liked what he saw. She had long wavy brown hair with streaks of blond in them. Her eyes weren't exactly hazel, now that he had a better look. They were more of a green with brown specs.

"Are you alright?" She asked.

"I think so," he said as he put his hand on his head. He was out of danger, but he was still a little shaky from everything.

"You might want to go a rest," she pointed out.

"I would if I could, but my bed is a tad char broiled."

"That was your home?" She asked, pointing to the partially burning building.

"Yeah, afraid so," he stated.

"Do you have somewhere I can take you?" She asked him, as they stood up.

"Yeah, I have some friends I can stay with, and sure you can take me there. It's just down the street."

"By the way, I'm Carrie Martins," she said, holding out her hand.

"And I'm David Jacobs."

"No," she yelped, stepping back.

"What's wrong?" He asked her with a worried expression on his face.

"You're David Jacobs."

When he nodded, she started to smile. "Nothings wrong. It's all wonderful. Don't you remember me?"

"Should I?"

"Aw, come on, Davey. How can you forget me? We've lived in the same building since we were kids. We went to the same school."

He looked closer at her and was surprised when he saw that it was his friend Carrie. He smiled, and hugged her, "Carrie, what are you doing here? Why didn't you tell me you were coming to town?"

"I told you about being in the orchestra, right?"

"Yeah, you told me, but you never told me that you were coming here," he admitted.

"Well, here I am, and you can't get rid of me," she said, poking his chest a little.

"I doubt I could make you do anything. Remember when I tried to get my shirt from you when we were seven?"

She started chuckling, "Yeah, I still can't forget that night. You ended up outside in the cold winter night until the clerk let you in your apartment."

"Why don't we go to my friends place? I should ask them if I can stay there."

She nodded and they walked down the street. During their walk, David told her about his friends. She laughed at some of the stories he told her about his friends. It had been a long time since they had talked together that Carrie realized how much she had missed him. She had forgotten how much of a crush she had on him, but never got a chance to do anything about it. It seemed like he always was busy with something, then when she had to move away.

They arrived at the newsie lodging house as Sally was walking up the street to. Waving to her, Carrie called out, "Hey, Sally. I have someone I want you to meet."

"Alright, and so do I," Sally stated.

"Sally, this is David Jacobs," Carried introduced them. "David, this is Sally Richards."

"This is the famous David Jacobs! You're all she's talked about for the last week," she stated, holding out her hand.

David blushed, but smiled and shook her hand quickly. He wasn't use to someone talking about him, even if it was his friends. It was nice though that he had good friends.

"What happened to you?" Sally inquired, looking at his soot covered clothes.

"Oh, this? My building caught on fire, and I got trapped on the roof. Carrie helped get me off though."

"She did?" Sally asked, looking at her friend. "And how did she do this?"

"She climbed up the fire escape, and when we went to climb back down, the fire escape had collapsed, and we had to use a rope to climb down."

"Oh, Carrie," Sally moaned. Shaking her head in wonder, she stated, "Guess it was a good thing we took those rope climbing lessons in Denver."

"Yes, it was," Carrie repeated.

"Hey, Sally, are ya going in? Ya didn't have ta wait for me," Jack called from down the street. He hadn't seen her talking to Carrie and David, so he thought she was just standing there.

"Just talking to a couple friends," Sally stated. "They were coming up this way anyhow."

"Hey, Davey. I thought ya was working," Jack asked when he reached their group.

"I was, but now it's a ruins. My building caught on fire."

"You two know each other?" Carrie asked.

"Yeah," David said. "I've been a newsie for two years. Jack and I led the strike two summers ago."

"We heard about that when we were in Denver. It was all over the country," Sally exclaimed.

"Yeah, we did hear about that. I guess I never placed the name since I didn't see any pictures or anything," Carrie commented. Looking at David, she wondered, "I'm guessing that this is Jack Kelly?"

"Yup, yous right. Jack Kelly at yous service," Jack said, taking Carrie's hand and kissing it gently. Grinning, he asked, "Has Davey been talking about me again?

"Yes, he has. He told me some stories about you guys on our way here."

"All of dem good, I hope," Jack wondered with a smirk.

"Yes, all were good," Carrie pointed out. "Although, I think David told me a story where you were a scab?"

"Oh, no, Davey. Ya didn't," Jack moaned covering his face with his hands. They all started laughing. When they all stopped, Sally asked Jack, "What's that all about?"

"I's can tell ya later," Jack replied. "Why don't we going inside? It looks like it's gonna rain, and I's sure Davey needs ta talk ta Kloppman about staying here."

"Thanks, Jack. I appreciate it.

"Anytime, Davey. Anytime," Jack pointed out, gently slapping him on the back. He would do anything for a friend.

***THE NEXT DAY***

After a long nights rain, the day was fresh and bright, and held new possibilities. David woke up along with his friends as Kloppman did his morning routine. That morning, he was going to sell papers until he got a chance to talk to his editors. He had left the newsies to write a book about the strike. His editors had seen bits of his work, and wanted more, so they commissioned him to write the strike story, since he had been in it.

After a few hours of selling, David had all his papers sold, and he went in search of Carrie. She had told him where she was living, and asked him to come over when he could. That's where he found himself, in front of her building, pacing back and forth on the front porch as he waited for someone to answer the door. Finally, a girl opened the door, smiled and asked, "Can I help you?"

"Yes, I'm here to see Carrie Martins."

"David Jacobs?"

He nodded, and she held the door open and pointed towards a set of stairs "She's been expecting you. Go up those stairs, and you'll come to the roof. She'll be waiting for you there."

Smiling his thanks, he went up the stairs, two at a time, and quickly reached the roof. When he arrived on the roof, he saw Carrie sitting on a blanket. Motioning to him, she patted the ground for him to sit down. He walked closer and sat down next to her. Smiling at her, he asked, "So what are you doing up here?"

"Don't you remember my last night in New York? We sat up on the roof of our building and talked for hours," she reminisced.

"Yeah, that was the best night we had in a long time," David said.

Laying back on the ground, she looked up at the sky, and stated, "I've always remembered that night, along with many others, but this one was special."

Leaning on his elbow, so he was looking at her, he asked, "Why was it special?"

"It was the first time anyone ever kissed me," she explained.

David blushed a little because he remembered kissing her that night, but hadn't thought much about it until he saw her the previous day. He always liked Carrie. She was fun to be with, and always was a challenge. Those were some of the things he liked about her. It wasn't until after she left that he realized how much he liked her. He was going to tell her everything, but when he got her letters, about the orchestra and everything, he didn't want to say anything. He thought she was better of without him.

"David, are you blushing?" Carrie asked with a smirk.

"No, I'm not," he tried to deny it, but he couldn't stop it.

"Yes, you are," she provoked as she started poking him in the chest and shoulders.

Grabbing her hands, they started wrestling, and a minute or so later, David pinned her hands under her with him on top of her. They were panting, mostly from their wrestling, but a part of it was because they were so close. This was the closest they've been to each other in three years.

David and Carrie just looked at each other, and then David leaned closer as he kissed her. Letting go of her hands, he brought his hand to her cheek and gently caressed it. Carrie brought her hands up to his neck and pulled him closer. It was starting to get hot up there, and it was mostly from them. Finally, before anything happened, David pulled away and sat up.

"I'm sorry," he said.

"For what?" she wondered.

"For kissing you. I shouldn't have done it. It wasn't right."

"Oh, David. Would it help if I said, I wanted that kiss as much as you did?"

He turned to her and looked in her eyes. In her eyes, he saw the mirror of his own emotions. There was as much warmth, love and compassion in her eyes as there were in his. Trembling just a little, he asked, "You did?"

She nodded and he smiled. Leaning to her, he kissed her once again, feeling the same heat from before. Finally, they came up for air and laid down on the blanket with her head on his chest. For the rest of the morning, they talked about many things, especially things from their past.

When it came time for lunch, Carrie went down and brought up a picnic lunch. It was a small basket with many delicious things in it. Ham sandwiches, carrots and celery, and rootbeer were a few of the things in it. While they ate their lunch, they were quiet, each thinking their own thoughts.

Before he could lose nerve, David made a decision about something and he was going to do it now while he had the chance. Placing his sandwich on the blanket, he reached for Carrie's hand, and asked her, "I know you've only been here a week, and I don't know how long you're going to be here, but will you be my girl. I love you and want to be with you always."

"Oh, David. You don't know how much I want to say yes, but I don't know what's going to happen. What will happen when we have to move to a new city? Would you honestly stay here, knowing that your girl was in another city or would you drop everything for me and follow me?"

"I do whatever it would take to stay with you," he stated.

"How about we take this day at a time? Before we go jumping into anything. However, I will be your girl, if you really want me to," she said with a smile.

"I do. That's all I ever wanted," he said with a smile.

She smiled at him, and patted his hand. Sighing, she said, "And you're the one that I want."

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